"Giorgione is regarded as a unique figure in the history of art: almost no other Western painter has left so few secure works and enjoyed such fame..." Sylvia Ferino-Pagden.

My website, MyGiorgione, now includes my interpretations of Giorgione's "Tempest" as "The Rest on the Flight into Egypt"; his "Three Ages of Man" as "The Encounter of Jesus with the Rich Young Man"; Titian's, "Sacred and Profane Love" as "The Conversion of Mary Magdalen"; and Titian's "Pastoral Concert" as his "Homage to Giorgione".

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Today, October, 28, marks the first anniversary of the death of Hasan Niyazi, a young art history buff and blogger from Australia. Before his very untimely death at about the same age as his idol Raphael, Hasan's blog, "Three Pipe Problem," had developed into one of the most popular art history blogs receiving more than 10000 page views each month. In remembrance of Hasan I would like to reproduce below one of the guest posts that he kindly allowed me to put on his site.

Raphael: Portrait of a Young Man
Lost during Nazi occupation of Poland

In a recent post at "Three Pipe
Problem" Hasan Niyazi presented a very comprehensive study of the attribution and provenance
history of a famed “Portrait of a Young Man”, usually attributed to Raphael.
The painting was one of those looted from the Czartoryski collection in Poland
by the Nazis during WWII and has still not been recovered.

Three Pipe Problem did mention
that scholars have disagreed on the identity of the subject of the painting,
and that even one, Oskar Fischel, had claimed that it was a young woman, and
not a man. This struck a chord with me for on first glance the sitter appeared
to me to be a woman of a particular kind.

Giorgione: Portrait of a Young Woman (Laura)

The painting reminded me of
Giorgione’s “Laura” where a young woman in a state of undress is partially
covered with a man’s robe. Scholars of Venetian art have noted that both the
disheveled look and the man’s robe indicate a courtesan. In “Giorgione, Myth
and Enigma”, the catalog of the 2004 Giorgione exhibition, the entry for
Giorgione’s “Portrait of a Young Woman” (Laura) noted the following.

According to Junkermann (1993) she
is wearing a male garment, which far from being a reference to marriage,
instead indicates that the model has adopted a typical male role, perhaps that
of a poet; but that does not exclude that she may also be a courtesan. Her
sumptuous fur-lined red garment is, more than an item of male attire, the
winter dress of Venetian women of pleasure (Pedrocco 1990; Junkermann 1993;
Anderson 1996), according to Cesare Vecellio’s Habiti (1590);… (catalog entry #8)

My first impression led me to take
a look through other Raphael portraits of men and women. Even a cursory look at
a Raphael catalog indicates that the hair of a Raphael man is rarely in such a
long and stringy, even unkempt, fashion. Moreover, with one exception he never
parts their hair in the middle or even exposes their foreheads. Men’s foreheads
are usually covered with a cap that sits firmly on top of the head and not worn
at the same rakish angle as in the lost painting. Raphael’s women, even
Madonnas, inevitably have their foreheads exposed with hair neatly parted in
the middle.

The portraits of Agnolo and
Maddalena Doni provide a striking example of hair fashion around 1505-6. The
man’s forehead is covered with his cap firmly on top of his head. The woman’s
long hair is parted neatly in the middle and her hair is covered with a
diaphanous veil. Things are much the same ten years later if we compare the
portrait of Baldassare Castiglione with “La Donna Velata”. Castiglione’s cap is
firmly atop his head and completely covers his forehead. The donna’s forehead
is uncovered with long hair parted neatly in the middle. The back of her head
is covered with a long white veil. Even the famous “La Fornarina" has hair
neatly parted in the middle but with her hair tied back with a scarf. Only in
the “Double Portrait with a Fencing Master” is a man’s forehead exposed but in
that case the hair is neatly trimmed and the man has considerable facial hair.

Raphael: La Fornarina

It is true that most of Raphael’s
woman have hair well done up and combed but I think Raphael could have been
depicting a courtesan here posing in her lover’s clothing. It looks like she’s
sitting in her shift with a man’s robe casually thrown over her shoulder, and a
man’s cap pinned to the back of her head as if to say, “she’s mine,” in a
somewhat less obvious way than Raphael did in “La Fornarina.”

Hasan Niyazi’s post on “Three Pipe
Problem” also provided some inadvertent information that supports a “young
woman” reading.Two early engravings
taken from the painting or copies emphasized female characteristics especially
the exaggerated curl of the lips. Also, Three Pipe Problem presented a striking
detail from the School of Athens that would seem to indicate a juxtaposition of
Raphael and his lover, the only two figures in the famous fresco looking out at
the viewer. No one has ever accused Raphael of being a homosexual.

My first impression led me to get
a copy of Oskar Fischel’s two-volume study of Raphael, a work that represented
the culmination of a lifetime devoted to the rehabilitation of Raphael. Like
the Czartoryski painting Fischel was also a casualty of the Nazis. He was born
in 1870 and the book jacket describes him in this fashion.

Oscar Fischel was a well-known art
historian and scholar. Among the important appointments he held was that of
Professor of Art in Berlin University. He was author of numerous works on
Italian Art, Modern Art, the History of Costume and the History of the Theatre.
But the theme that lay nearest his heart was the art of Raphael. He made this
his life’s work.*

Unfortunately, Fischel’s career
was interrupted in 1933 when he was dismissed from his post at the University
of Berlin by the new Hitler regime. Student protests forced his reinstatement
but he was finally dismissed in 1935. Apparently, museum officials in London
were successful in bringing him to London where he died in 1939. His study of
Raphael was translated and published in London in 1948 with the first volume
containing text, and the second prints. The publisher summarized Fischel’s
approach in this way.

Oscar Fischel contends that Raphael
has been misrepresented in the same manner as Mozart. His natural grace and the
apparent ease and fluency with which his work was accomplished have led to the
charge that he was lacking in deeper understanding. The author is at pains to
refute these criticisms. He reveals to us not the superficial, sentimental,
pious and graceful artist, but a true poet and creator, interpreting the
fundamental and essential meaning of life.

Fischel devoted only half a page
to the Czartoryski painting discussing it right after the more famous “La Donna
Velata.” To put it in context here are a few of his words on that woman that
lead him into a discussion of the Czartoryski.

The Donna Velata of the Pitti
Palace is the result of a commission of his very own, in the midst of the great
frescoes and orders for altarpieces; it is a love-prompted improvisation on the
most charming of themes—the innocence and womanly dignity of a young Roman
woman of the people. The colour echoes this harmony of character…. (123)

Raphael: La Donna Velata

We know that the master found the
purity of her young features, with the dark, beaming charm of her look, worthy
of the otherworldly revelation of the Sistine Madonna. Years ago it was
supposed that her still dazzling features, although quickly coarsened, might be
recognized in the picture in the Czartoryski Gallery at Cracow. Once there was
a much-disputed idea that it might be a self-portrait of Raphael, also that it
perhaps represented the Duke of Urbino, or, finally, the Fornarina. Sebastiano
del Piombo was mentioned as its painter, as so were as many other artists as
there were experts who stood in front of the picture when it was at Dresden
during the last war.

Fischel must have been among those
experts who saw the painting in person while it was in Dresden. He saw a young
woman.

the hair with its locks
reluctantly breaking loose on the temples, and the deep-cut thumbs, warrant the
conclusion that it is a woman who is here represented; also the secret of the
bosom is rather betrayed than guarded by the fur cloak, not put on, but thrown
as if on the spur of the moment over the shirt. This negligee has a poetic
significance only if it is a woman who is in question. The right forearm seems
to rest on the bottom of a lute. The white of the chemise, the gold and brown
of the gown with its fur collar, the greenish-golden cover on the table, form
with the gleaming flesh-tones, a boldly conceived harmony, gorgeous to a
degree, which is gathered together within the grand, free form of the
silhouette. The painting can be compared for triumphant power with the group of
the Pope in the Attila; like this fresco, it is of inestimable value as the
last evidence quite incontestably from Raphael’s own hand of his most personal
chromatic expression. (125)

Raphael: Portrait of a Young Woman

Note. Hasan Niyazi was born in Cyprus but his family emigrated to Australia when he was a child. He called his adopted home Oz. I will think of him every time I hear Judy Garland sing "Somewhere over the Rainbow." Hasan admitted that he had no training in art history and that he got into it by sheer accident. Yet, hard work and a love of beauty led him over the rainbow to the land of Raphael and the Renaissance. ###

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

The following discussion of the so-called "Vision of Ezekiel" originally appeared as a guest post on Hasan Niyazi's popular Art history blog, "Three Pipe Problem." This month marks the first anniversary of Hasan's untimely death last year at about the same age as his beloved Raphael. Since Hasan's site is not currently open, I am publishing some of my guest posts here. This post illustrates how Hasan and I worked together using our different skills and approaches.

In a 2011 post Hasan had discussed the controversy raging in Italy over
the authenticity of a Raphael painting known as the “Vision of Ezekiel” now in
the Pitti Palace in Florence. The question of whether this painting was by
Raphael or one of his associates had little interest for me, but as I read on
another question came to mind.

It
would appear that the subject of the painting has been misunderstood ever since
Giorgio Vasari mentioned it in his biography of Raphael.

Here
is what Vasari wrote:

At
a later period, our artist painted a small picture, which is now at Bologna, in
the possession of the Count Vincenzio Ercolani. The subject of this work is
Christ enthroned amid the clouds, after the manner in which Jupiter is so
frequently depicted. But the Saviour is surrounded by the four Evangelists, as
described in the Book of Ezekiel: one in the form of a man, that is to say;
another in that of a lion; the third as an eagle; and the fourth as an ox. The
earth beneath exhibits a small landscape, and this work, in its minuteness—all
the figures being very small—is no less beautiful than are the others in their
grandeur of extent.*

Vasari
said that the subject of the painting is “Christ enthroned amid the clouds.” He
did mention that Christ was surrounded by the four animals that Ezekiel saw in
his vision. Even though the painting called to Vasari’s mind the vision of
Ezekiel, the artist, whoever he was, must certainly have had a different vision
in mind.

The
vision in this painting is the vision of St. John from the Book of Revelation
(Apocalypse). Let’s just compare the two visions. Here is the account from the
book of the Prophet Ezekiel.

As
I was among the exiles on the bank of the river Chebar, heaven opened and I saw
visions from God….Ezekiel 1:1

A
stormy wind blew from the north, a great cloud with light around it, a fire
from which flashes of lightning darted, and in the center a sheen like bronze
at the heart of the fire. In the center I saw what seemed four animals. They
looked like this. They were of human form. Each had four faces, each had four wings.
…As to what they looked like, they had human faces, and all four had a lion’s
face to the right, and all four had a bull’s face to the left, and all four had
an eagle’s face.Their wings were
spread upward; each had two wings that touched, and two wings that covered his
body;… Their wings were spread upward; each had two wings that touched, and two
wings that covered his body…Ezekiel 1: 4-12

Between
these animals something could be seen like flaming brands or torches, darting
between the animals; the fire flashed light, and lightning streaked from the
fire. And the creatures ran to and fro like thunderbolts.” Ezekiel 1: 13-14.

The
animals are in Ezekiel’s vision but there is no God or Christ enthroned among
them. Ezekiel’s vision found its way into the Book of Revelation, a book
replete with imagery from the Hebrew Scriptures. Here is St. John’s vision (Jerusalem
Bible).

My name is John…I was on the island of Patmos for having preached
God’s word and witnessed for Jesus; it was the Lord’s day and the Spirit
possessed me, and I heard a voice behind me, shouting like a trumpet, “Write
down all that you see in a book…Revelation 1: 9-13.

Then, in my vision, I saw a door open in heaven and heard the same
voice speaking to me, the voice like a trumpet, saying, “Come up here: I will
show you what is to come in the future.” With that, the Spirit possessed me and
I saw a throne standing in heaven, and the One who was sitting on the throne,
and the Person sitting there looked like a diamond and a ruby….In the center,
grouped around the throne itself, were four animals with many eyes, in front
and behind. The first animal was like a lion, the second like a bull, the third
animal had a human face, and the fourth animal was like a flying eagle. Each of
the four animals had six wings and had eyes all the way around as well as
inside;…

Revelation 4: 1-8.

In
John’s vision God the Creator, “the One” sitting on the throne in the midst of
the four creatures, is the most prominent figure. Vasari identified the figure
as Christ but the figure more closely resembles Michelangelo’s images of God
the Father in the Sistine chapel. Only later in John’s account would the Lamb
join the One sitting on the throne.

In
the “Vision of Ezekiel” the small figure on the left receiving the vision must
then be identified not as Ezekiel but John, exiled on the isle of Patmos. It is
hard to tell, but he seems to be on an island facing a broad expanse of sea
rather than in a crowd of people at the bank of the river Chebar.

Some
scholars have argued that there is a companion piece to the “Vision of Ezekiel”
that did not find its way back to Italy after the fall of Napoleon. In his
study of Raphael Jean-Pierre Cuzin discussed a small oil on panel of the Holy
Family.

The
kinship in style and execution of the small Holy Family and the Vision of
Ezekiel in the Pitti Palace at Florence, which have the same dimensions is
striking: the rounded, thick-set bodies, strongly modeled by black shadows and
lively touches of light, and the vigorous impasto execution, invite one to see
an identical hand in both pictures—that of Penni, for Konrad Oberhuber. Others
have more often thought of Giulio Romano. The Vision of Ezekiel, unlike the
neglected picture in the Louvre, counts among Raphael’s celebrated works; it is
identified with a picture described by Vasari at Bologna in the house of Count
Ercolani. **

The
small Holy Family is also a misnomer. It is actually a depiction of the encounter
of Mary and the infant Jesus on their return from the flight into Egypt with
her cousin Elizabeth and the infant John the Baptist. With or without St.
Joseph this legendary meeting was a very popular subject since it marked the
initial acceptance of the mission of Christ. Usually the Christ child accepts
the small cross from the young Baptist but in this case he accepts the Baptist
himself.

If
the two paintings are companion pieces, they would then represent the beginning
and the end of Christ’s mission. The meeting of the two infants in the Judean
desert recalls the words of the Baptist, “Behold the Lamb of God,” and in the
vision from the Book of Revelation, the Lamb who was sacrificed will join “the
One seated on the Throne.”